


Outmaneuvering General Iroh

by WinterSnufkin



Series: Zuko vs. Adults [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Anxiety, Extreme Touch Starvation, Gen, Manipulative Behavior, Paranoid Behavior, Past Child Abuse, Suspicion of Adults, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Zuko vs. Adults, Zuko: I want a hug from uncle... Manipulation Time, but like in a loving way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24457465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterSnufkin/pseuds/WinterSnufkin
Summary: Zuko idly mentions that he hasn’t seen Uncle in months--and leaves out the fact that it’s slowly killing him inside-- and Aang suggests that he does what they’ve all been doing:Make up an excuse.Zuko is scandalized, because he’s the Firelord and he has to be responsible, but the more he thinks about it, the more he’s sure that he can manage to do great good for his people with a visit to Ba Sing Se. It’s not so muchmaking up an excuseas it is knocking out two pigeon-hawks with one stone. Convenient for everyone.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zuko vs. Adults [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766464
Comments: 47
Kudos: 2821
Collections: AtLA <10k fics to read, Finished111





	Outmaneuvering General Iroh

Reuniting with Uncle is painful. Not just the bad emotions like the fear of rejection, the anxiety, the self-hatred and sorrow-- but also the sheer joy of being forgiven, the euphoria of being embraced, the tidal wave of relief from being safe, if only for a moment, in Uncle’s arms.

Yes, even the good emotions hurt, but Zuko’s gotten used to the pain, and he knows that to live is to endure. He wouldn’t give up that embrace for anything.

The problem is that it has to end. Uncle pulls away with tears in his eyes and a small smile on his face, brushes a hand down Zuko’s cheek, and they don’t touch again until after the war is won, and Uncle gets to give him a brief side-hug before he’s pulled away to address his nation.

Then Uncle leaves.

Firelord Zuko knows why he has to. Nephew Zuko might cry about it at night, but that’s between him and Agni. He’s so quiet that the midnight guards think he’s sound asleep. He’s only cried loudly once in his life, and he doesn’t want to repeat the experience.

Time passes, and he hardly sees his friends either, even though they seem to be scrambling for any excuse to visit him that their new duties will allow. Aang is the most successful at it, because people are surprisingly reluctant to tell the avatar how to go about his business, and sometime during one of his visits Zuko idly mentions that he hasn’t seen Uncle in months-- _and leaves out the fact that it’s slowly killing him inside_ \-- and Aang suggests that he does what they’ve all been doing:

Make up an excuse.

Zuko is scandalized, because he’s the Firelord and he has to be responsible, but the more he thinks about it, the more he’s sure that he can manage to do great good for his people with a visit to Ba Sing Se. It’s not so much _making up an excuse_ as it is knocking out two pigeon-hawks with one stone. Convenient for everyone.

Aang nods encouragingly at this line of thought, and with that, he’s decided.

He’s going to Ba Sing Se.

\-----

The problem is... when he forgets to check himself, he ends up a little bit more like Azula that he would like to admit. The mindset of ‘convenient for everyone’ is so easy to escalate into setting everything up like dominos so that when the time actually comes, everything falls where he wants it to.

It’s saving time. It’s planning for everything. It’s streamlining results.

It’s also a little creepy, he has to admit.

He sets up meetings like this: If he talks to General Minato about accommodating the returning troops at eight in the morning, knowing that the General has a meeting with the Head of Agriculture later, Minato will go to _that_ meeting with the image of war-scarred teenagers fresh on his mind, and this will inevitably lead him to bring up the topic of providing rations and other accommodations to the soldiers that have no home to return to, the ones that will need a lot of time and support to get back on their feet.

This way, Zuko doesn’t have to arrange a separate meeting with the Head of Agriculture to bring it up himself. And if he sets up all the dominos correctly, everyone thinks that his radically compassionate proposed legislature is their own idea, and that way no one argues with him strictly on the principle of tradition.

He approaches Uncle in Ba Sing Se like this: If he sets up his political events where the gap in his schedule happens when Uncle is most likely to be closing his tea shop (because he infuriatingly has no set schedule and opens and closes when he feels the time is right), his visit won’t get in the way of business. Innocent enough.

If he has five viable and politically appropriate outfits to choose from for that day’s meetings, what’s the harm in choosing the only one that doesn’t have pauldrons that ward off the idea of hugs through sheer spikiness?

He remembers Uncle saying that he finds the scent of lavender very calming and peaceful, so his cologne choice is easy. He tells his guards that when they arrive, he wants them to station themselves outside of the shop instead of inside. He knows their presence would undercut the moment.

When he finally enters, he hunches his shoulders to seem a little smaller than he actually is, a little younger, and when Uncle turns around and immediately opens his arms, he feels a rush of triumph and leaps forward.

Things don’t usually work out so perfectly for him, even when he puts the work in.

\-----

It doesn’t stop.

Zuko’s so much better at Pai Sho these days, but when Uncle suggests a game, he deliberately fails miserably and when he looks up in frustration, Uncle puts a hand on his arm to console him.

Zuko anonymously pastes fliers up all around the city at night advertising the Jasmine Dragon, furtive and silent in his Blue Spirit regalia. The next day, Uncle looks across his bustling teashop with pride and throws an arm around Zuko’s shoulders.

It’s all so perfect. He wonders if this is how Azula feels all the time. Or… felt. He wonders if it’s only because her luck has run out that he finally sees some kind of success from his planning, if it’s just the universe seeking balance as it always does.

For some reason, that thought just doesn’t sit right with him. He consoles himself with the thought that she’s just much better than he is, and the reason he almost always failed was because it was her he was up against.

He misses her. In the middle of all the action it had been easy to forget she was his little sister, but he remembers now. They didn’t always hate each other.

He cries beneath the covers in Uncle’s guest room and he considers letting himself be loud, just this once, on the off chance that Uncle might come and hold him close... but in the end, he can’t muster the confidence. It feels a bit far, a bit _too_ manipulative, and a small part of him is afraid that if he tries it, it’ll hurt so much more when no one comes.

\-----

The next day, Firelord Zuko’s last planned day of visitation to Ba Sing Se, General Iroh gets a hand around the back of his neck and hauls him into a crushing embrace.

Zuko blinks, exhausted and confused, and slowly lifts his arms to return the favor. He hadn’t even done anything to earn this one. There was no planning on his part, caught up in arranging his safe exit from the Earth Kingdom.

“My nephew,” hums Uncle, and Zuko sighs, knowing how much more painful it will be to return to the palace after this. “I hope that you know that you do not have to do anything special to get a hug from me.”

Zuko frowns. Had Uncle figured out what he was doing? No, there was no way. He was too careful.

“I know,” Zuko says, even though he doesn’t.

Uncle pulls away and stares at him for a little while, still holding his shoulders. “I hope that you will visit again sometime soon,” he says eventually.

“I will always find time for you,” is what Zuko _wants_ to say.

Instead, he says, “There’s always work to do in Ba Sing Se.”

Uncle smiles.

\-----

When Zuko leaves the city, Iroh sighs and nurses his cup of jasmine tea. His nephew is _not_ subtle.

He chuckles to himself, all alone in his tea shop, but secure in the knowledge he won’t have to be alone for very long.


End file.
